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Lorde (2018) introduces the idea that we cannot use the master’s tools to dismantle his house. This idea speaks to how people who want to create social change cannot keep using the same tools and structures to deconstruct systems of oppression. To not include difference and the very people that are deeply affected by intersecting avenues of oppression in the fight against oppressive systems. Community is important when organizing and Lorde discusses the need to use it in a coalitional sense and to fight back against the individualistic nature of colonist and white supremacist culture. (Ava Smith)

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The place, both physical and mental, where the borders that divide us dissolve to make space for people to fully inhabit their bodies and come to a more nuanced way of understanding themselves and others. This concept comes from Gloria Anzaldúa’s piece entitled “La conciencia de la mestiza: Towards a New Consciousness.” (Lorna Stephens)

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The process of traveling into another person’s world, in order to see that world, as well as your own, from their perspective. Helpful to garner a kind of knowledge or understanding that gives way to a new form of relationality. This concept comes from María Lugones’ piece entitled "World" Traveling, and Loving Perception." (Lorna Stephens)

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Erik Helmstetter (He/Him): I am a third-year Social Work major with a minor in Women and Gender Studies. I love connecting with people through learning about their stories and personal experiences and am especially interested in the ways in which Multiracial and Decolonial Feminist understandings can be incorporated in agriculture and within non-academic spaces.

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Erik Helmstetter (He/Him): I am a third-year Social Work major with a minor in Women and Gender Studies. I love connecting with people through learning about their stories and personal experiences and am especially interested in the ways in which Multiracial and Decolonial Feminist understandings can be incorporated in agriculture and within non-academic spaces.

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Zinn and Dill (1996) discuss the idea of the universal woman. White women and mainstream feminism have tried to search for and identify universal and essential characteristics that make someone a woman. Women of color have pushed against this idea and aim to contextualize gender within race and class and recognize the importance of difference among women. This plays into the false idea that all women share the same homogenous struggles and that there are overarching solutions that work for everyone. Breaking down the idea of the universal woman entails focusing on differences related to race and class as structural issues and not individualized characteristics. (Ava Smith)

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Womanist is a rebellious figure to the mainstream. It refers to a woman whose practice and alliance is across lines of race, class, ethnicity, gender, sex, and national status. In such, a "Womanist" is a woman that has a loving perception towards other women, their cultures, and ways of being, and one who seeks investment in the well-being of these other women. This woman can identify with the conditions, experiences, and stories of other women because they are familiar with working across differences rather than letting it separate them from each other.

"Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender." (Shelby Marquand)

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The need to be intentional and serious about our healing in the spiritual and political work of feminism and social justice came up for me through the work of Jacqui Alexander. Alexander reminds me that “...we have to be sure we want to be well” and that we must make conscious, practiced, and embodied, “...the yearning to be healed” (277). The idea that our healing as people is essential to the work of social transformation is something that really resonated with me and connected to my understanding of spirituality. Cheng Imm Tan highlights this connection by stating, “...spirituality is not only about bringing compassion to the world but to myself as well, since I too am intrinsically part of the world” (211). Intentionality behind this spiritual work requires that I too, “...work to embrace all of myself with a loving heart” and heal myself, alongside all other forms of life (215). (Lena Kabeshita)

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A certified organic intellectual is a person that utilizes their epistemic knowledge and own experiences to produce theories about the world around them. Organic intellectuals are in touch with the community, environment, and forms of knowledge that surround them in a distinct way, authorizing them valid ways of knowing about the world. They demonstrate that the process of theorizing doesn't have to exclude lived experiences, culture, and ancestral traditions. The organic intellectual expertise of Third World women, Black women, Indigenous women, and other marginalized groups are instrumental in efforts to decolonize knowledge and theory. (Shelby Marquand)

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A concept used by Audre Lorde in “Poetry is Not a Luxury.” It is a revelatory distillation of experience; a reserve of creativity and power found in the dark recesses inside us, where true knowledge and lasting action come from; creates the Quality of Light; names that which is nameless and formless so that they can be thought; based on what is already felt; combats the belief that white, European knowledge reigns supreme. (Sunset Combs).

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A concept derived by Marilyn Frye, used by Mariana Ortega in “Being Lovingly, Knowingly Different: White Feminism and Women of Color.” A great wanting is created when we are told that we can have (and deserve) everything we desire, or when we are told we can have nothing. Because of this great wanting, we simplify, invent, and expect the world to be a specific way rather than investigating it, asking questions to know more about it. This concept highlights the importance of questioning the world and oneself—knowing and owning the ways in which our great wanting is implicated in how we come to know the world and how we distort knowledge of this world. Understanding our great wanting can help us to perceive lovingly. (Sunset Combs).

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The process in which we turn our attention inward to look at ourselves, our own practices, in order to form a clearer understanding of how our identities and the experiences shape the ways in which we move through the world. This concept comes from Gloria Anzaldúa’s piece entitled “Foreword 2001” from This Bridge Called My Back. (Lorna Stephens)

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We need to stop tokenizing people of color in “inclusive” spaces and move toward representing everyone. As discussed in Pegues’ Strategies from the Field, people of color are often included in majority white activist spaces so they can “prove” to be a non-racist and inclusive space. In reality, POC are silenced and burdened with educating others. Tokenizing is a tool used to uphold systems of oppression that keep white males in dominant positions while using people with marginalized identities. (Sam Newberry).

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Multiplicity of identities is the notion of holding and living in multiple social locations. Those who are multiply burdened are impacted by systems of dominance differently since they hold multiple marginalized identities. “This focus on the most privileged group members marginalizes those who are multiply burdened, and obscures claims that cannot be understood as resulting from discrete sources of discrimination” (383). (Lili Federico)

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Developing a Feminist Consciousness is About Being Comfortable With Contradictions and In-Between Spaces

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Developing a Feminist Consciousness is About Being Comfortable With Contradictions and In-Between Spaces

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In “La conciencia de la mestiza - Towards a New Consciousness," Gloria Anzaldua outlines the formation of the mestiza consciousness. A very important dimension to this consciousness involves “a tolerance for ambiguity” and contradiction. This is such an important thing to recognize, since the dominant structure often forces us to be black or white, one or the other. A mestiza consciousness makes space between these worlds rather than just choosing one or the other. (Leah Snyder).

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A term used by Maria Lugones to describe a type of resistance to the dominant culture. Dominant culture was not made for Women of Color, and Playfulness is a tactic that can be used to make fun of and criticize dominant culture, in a way that is not as emotionally draining as resisting dominant culture. (Erik Helmstetter).

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Visibility is who is seen when, where, and how; whose voice is being heard, whose physical presence is missing, and who has been left out of certain conversations. Visibility is about the voices that are seen and heard within a given space. "When black people are talked about the focus tends to be on black men; and when women are talked about the focus tends to be on white women” (296). (Lili Federico)

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_nYgYm9tiABmDS9Rx1D7H2F0gKmeJqtIrLjD6kfMYLk/edit?usp=sharing

wall paper site - https://wallpaperaccess.com/60s-flower-power

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Thompson (2002) outlines the meaning of bridge work and how it should be the responsibility of white women and not women of color, even though the burden is often put on them. When white women do try and bridge the gap between them and women of color, they fail to recognize the ways that the feminism they are practicing further marginalizes these women. White women also navigate building this bridge in a shallow way, even though women of color have outlined how white women can have meaningful relationships with them. Bridge work entails not creating a monolithic idea of women of color, listening to their anger and experiences, and also looking to their own history of rebellion instead of capitalizing on the histories of women of color. (Ava Smith)

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Differences among and between women of color are natural and unavoidable. Rather than fear what makes us different, we can honor our differences and use them to help imagine new ways of seeing and being in relation. Audre Lorde often discusses this concept, stating that “...difference must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic… only within that interdependency of different strengths, acknowledged and equal, can the power to seek new ways of being in the world generate, as well as the courage and sustenance to act where there are no charters” (111). Similarly, Jacqui Alexander reminds us “...to see ourselves as part of one another, even in the context of difference” and to “...become fluent in each others’ histories” (265, 269). (Lena Kabeshita)

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We need to “make peace with paradox.” because black and white thinking does not serve us. Black and white thinking is a white supremacist ideal and does not allows us to see things for how they truly are. Working instead from a both-and, framework allows us to recognize the ways that we cause harm while also being able to grow and adapt. Alexander suggests making peace with contradiction and paradox in the uneven structure of our lives. (Sam Newberry).

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The ground work for feminist thought and practice as it is being taught today. Leaving a mark on the world to ensure that this work is not forgotten. Following in the footsteps of those who came before us. (Annelise Fleming)

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The "erotic" is a lifeforce within all women that is present in every aspect of life. The erotic functions as an internal directive for how to live, in which it demands from us that we know our full capacity for joy in order to be present in the moment, to know what its like to "feel a moment." The erotic is a limitless, replenishing source of knowledge that exists on a feminine and spiritual plane, one which is used as a lens to scrutinize the world around us in accordance with our fullest capacity for joy and fulfillment.

(Shelby Marquand)

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Multiracial and Decolonial Feminism is Political and Based Around Action

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Multiracial and Decolonial Feminism is Political and Based Around Action

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This concept comes up multiple times in the first few readings. bell hooks, in "Feminist Politicization - A Comment,” discusses the “broken promise” of the idea that the personal is political and advocates for going beyond the limitations of identity politics to theorize feminism. Additionally, Becky Thompson, in “Multiracial Feminism: Recasting the Chronology of Second Wave Feminism,” describes the history of second-wave feminism as one that was deeply political, militant, and always oriented towards justice. (Leah Snyder).

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The knowledge we need is within us, we just have to listen. Being a good student under a capitalist system means blindly absorbing information and reproducing it. Morales points out in Certified Organic Intellectual that we can reconnect feminist theory with our own lives. We have to reconnect with our body and our roots and trust our own wisdom. (Sam Newberry).

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Theory is Important and it Should be Accessible 

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Theory is Important and it Should be Accessible 

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This is something that comes up in several of the readings but I love the way Hilden and Lee talk about it in “Indigenous Feminism: The Project." In this piece, they describe the necessity of “dreamers” who theorize based on their own experiences. They also explain how the notion of theory has been implicated in all kinds of harmful ways, but grounded feminist theorizing is crucial to this work. (Leah Snyder).

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Global feminism encapsulates any and everyone who has been touched by patriarchy, sexism, racism, disability, capitalism, and other systems of oppression. It recognizes a need and focuses on other identities that the individual doesn’t face or identify within the sphere of influence. (Annelise Fleming)

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outlines the need for a more all-encompassing, intersectional approach to reproductive health in relation to women of color. Hegemonic feminism and mainstream feminism focus on abortion rights and access to contraception. While these are still important issues, the mainstream fight for reproductive health does not include aspects that relate to and serve women of color. This includes fighting for women of color to keep their children, have children safely, call out problematic birth control testing on women of color, and for women of color to have autonomy over their reproductive systems in all ways. Reproductive justice unpacks the pervasiveness of white supremacy and includes issues of abortion but takes an intersectional approach and acknowledges the specific struggles women of color face due to white supremacy and racism. (Ava Smith)

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The concept of return appeared as a recurring theme throughout the semester’s readings. The idea of returning to the inner self, the body/feeling, the erotic, the third space, the borderlands, and to ancestors, spirituality, and history all emerged for me. Lorde reminds us to return to the erotic “...within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling” (168). Cheng Imm Tan calls us to return to life and reclaim our “...full humanness and interconnectedness” by extending love to ourselves and others (211). Eliana S. Rivero shows us the potential to return to and reclaim our multiplicities as she states, “I am a hybrid, a puente, a being of two places at once, but also of one place which is dual and fluid and rich” (343). Lastly, Ana Castillo invites us to return to the body and “...our our spiritual, political, and erotic needs as people” (122). (Lena Kabeshita)

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This section speaks to what the future holds. We have the tools and now know how to use them looking into the future. We see the world through different eyes and find new ways of discovering our paths.

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A state of being that comes during a deep depression. Coatlicue is the goddess of life and death and of cycles, and the Coatlicue State involves acknowledging these cycles, especially the cyclical nature of our emotions. Gloria Anzaldúa describes that the only thing that will get us out of this deep sadness or troubling time is the direct acknowledgment of the struggle and that anything else is simply a distraction. Coatlicue comes to us when it is time for us to change or move on. We must wallow in our sorrows and allow Coatlicue to come to us and help us to change for the better. (Erik Helmstetter).

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This section speaks to the concepts we came to learn as tools in helping our journeys from this class. These concepts are the ways in which we can find spaces in this society and work towards a more comprehensive understanding of our existence.

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A term created by Deborah King that references the complex and multi-faceted experience of oppression for Black Women. The term “Double-Jeopardy” had previously been used to describe this experience because Black Women are oppressed both by systems of patriarchy and of racism. However, King expands on this understanding by explaining that other oppressions, besides just race and gender oppression, also find their way into the lives of Black Women. Most notably, King highlights how class struggle is implicated in the experience of Black Women. (Erik Helmstetter).

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The belief that because people share the same identities as you, their political, social, and feminist consciousness is the same as yours. This ideology causes a large disruption in the work that needs to be done because it focuses on identity politics instead of recognizing the differences one individually brings to the table. (Annelise Fleming)

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The western gaze is the way in which the Western world (namely the United States and western Europe) view social structures and the world around them. There is a heavy emphasis on ignoring certain details about what is happening in society and only highlighting the good elements within the culture. “If we begin our analysis from, and limit it to, the space of privileged communities, our visions of justice are more likely to be exclusionary because privilege nurtures blindness to those without the same privileges” (91). Feminist theory has “become an intellectual exercise, academic in that other sense of the word – disconnected from daily use” (31). (Lili Federico)

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A white, U.S.-centric form of feminism that marginalizes women of color, their views, and their struggles. Hegemonic feminism also views “sexism as the ultimate oppression” and does not have an intersectional approach that recognizes race and class as vital aspects of women’s hardships and feminism. Hegemonic feminism, which is mainstream in the U.S., views equality as women being equal to men and does not focus on justice but rather individual rights which serve only white women. Second-wave feminism, which in a mainstream sense is hegemonic feminism, focuses on the works of middle-class white women and does not encompass the large contribution that women of color made to feminism and more specifically Multiracial Feminism. (Ava Smith)

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This section of concepts speaks to all the concepts we came to understand that dictate our world. These are the ways we are taught to move through the spaces we inhabit and show the structure of the society we inhabit.

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My name is Leah Snyder (she/her) and I am a Women’s Studies major. My minors are in Anthropology and International Development. I love learning about the ways in which humans are connected across difference. I currently work in the Women and Gender Advocacy Center as a student programmer.

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My name is Leah Snyder (she/her) and I am a Women’s Studies major. My minors are in Anthropology and International Development. I love learning about the ways in which humans are connected across difference. I currently work in the Women and Gender Advocacy Center as a student programmer.

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Shelby Marquand (she/her): I am looking forward to receiving my Bachelors of Arts in Ethnic Studies with a minor in Women and Gender Studies from CSU this May, 2021. As I look back, I am entirely grateful for the abundance of love and hope that I’ve found here, and that I could be a part of such a wholesome community. What follows after this will continue to be guided by this abundance, keeping me in touch with my practice as a feminist and grounded in my humanity. 

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Shelby Marquand (she/her): I am looking forward to receiving my Bachelors of Arts in Ethnic Studies with a minor in Women and Gender Studies from CSU this May, 2021. As I look back, I am entirely grateful for the abundance of love and hope that I’ve found here, and that I could be a part of such a wholesome community. What follows after this will continue to be guided by this abundance, keeping me in touch with my practice as a feminist and grounded in my humanity. 

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Sam Newberry (she/her) I am a senior psychology major with a minor in women and gender studies. I graduate this semester! My post grad plans are to become an EMT and pursue a career in the medical field as a physicians assistant. I adore music, coffee, rainy days, and animals!

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Sam Newberry (she/her) I am a senior psychology major with a minor in women and gender studies. I graduate this semester! My post grad plans are to become an EMT and pursue a career in the medical field as a physicians assistant. I adore music, coffee, rainy days, and animals!

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Lena Kabeshita (she/her): I am a senior at Colorado State University majoring in Soil and Crop Science and minoring in Interdisciplinary Women’s Studies. As I graduate from CSU this May 2021, I am looking forward to bringing my feminist consciousness and practice to the field of agriculture and reimagining our relationships to food and land.

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Lena Kabeshita (she/her): I am a senior at Colorado State University majoring in Soil and Crop Science and minoring in Interdisciplinary Women’s Studies. As I graduate from CSU this May 2021, I am looking forward to bringing my feminist consciousness and practice to the field of agriculture and reimagining our relationships to food and land.

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Hi :) My name is Annelise Fleming and my pronouns are she/her/hers. I will be graduating this May (woooo finally!) with a degree in Political Science and Ethnic Studies with a minor in Women’s Studies. I really enjoyed how we were able to come up with our own definitions for words that helped us individually understand concepts in this class. I think it allows for difference to be apparent as compared to all of us writing the same 5 definitions. I love astrology, oldies music, learning new ways to implement social justice into my life and others and connecting with people.

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Hi :) My name is Annelise Fleming and my pronouns are she/her/hers. I will be graduating this May (woooo finally!) with a degree in Political Science and Ethnic Studies with a minor in Women’s Studies. I really enjoyed how we were able to come up with our own definitions for words that helped us individually understand concepts in this class. I think it allows for difference to be apparent as compared to all of us writing the same 5 definitions. I love astrology, oldies music, learning new ways to implement social justice into my life and others and connecting with people.

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Lili Federico (She.Her) - I am a junior Theatre Design and Technology Major with a double minor in Women’s Studies and Ethnic Studies. I am incredibly grateful for all of the love and support from this group of gorgeous humans. I am always looking forward  to expanding and growing into my feminist consciousness.

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Lili Federico (She.Her) - I am a junior Theatre Design and Technology Major with a double minor in Women’s Studies and Ethnic Studies. I am incredibly grateful for all of the love and support from this group of gorgeous humans. I am always looking forward  to expanding and growing into my feminist consciousness.

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I am Sunset Combs (she/her/hers), an MFA candidate in the creative nonfiction program. 

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I am Sunset Combs (she/her/hers), an MFA candidate in the creative nonfiction program. 

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My name is Ava Smith and my pronouns are she/her/hers. I am a fourth-year Human Development and Family Studies major with a concentration in Early Childhood Professions with a minor in Women's Studies, and I am very excited to be graduating this semester! 

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My name is Ava Smith and my pronouns are she/her/hers. I am a fourth-year Human Development and Family Studies major with a concentration in Early Childhood Professions with a minor in Women's Studies, and I am very excited to be graduating this semester! 

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My name is Lorna Stephens and my pronouns are they/them. I am a third-year Design and Technical Theatre major with a minor in Women's Studies. I am so grateful for this class of people who have helped me grow immensely this semester. 

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My name is Lorna Stephens and my pronouns are they/them. I am a third-year Design and Technical Theatre major with a minor in Women's Studies. I am so grateful for this class of people who have helped me grow immensely this semester. 

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Over the course of the Spring 2021 semester, we were tasked as a class to collect important and meaningful concepts. This collective conceptual archive is meant to demonstrate how each one of us has been positioned into our humanity and exposed to a lifeforce within. All of us have walked through the fire to get here, and now it's critical that we distill our experiences, grapple with our modes of consciousness, and share what we have learned.

As a collective, we have been in conversation with multiracial and decolonial feminists and their texts, locating our deepest sense of identification with these women, forging a path for how to yearn for these women across our differences. Reframing and unlearning what we have been taught previously so we can join these women towards a new consciousness.

We grew into a wholesome community over the semester, and have come to know each other through a shared sense of interconnectedness. The knowledge that we share here is representative of a collective and rooted in our journey of coming to understand multiracial and decolonial feminism.